In society, everything revolves around technology. Because of this, people lose focus on what’s most important in the world; each other. Society and the book Fahrenheit 451 are parallels. The book exaggerates what contemporary society is like. Guy Montag, the main character of the book, starts out as a regular pawn in society’s plans. After a certain encounter, his eyes open and he begins to see the problem. Ray Bradbury, the author of the book, helps shed light on these issues by using Montag as an example. In the novel, Montag reads a poem out loud for Mildred and her friends and ends up upsetting Mrs. Phelps. To calm her down and make her feel better, Mildred says to her “Come on, let’s be cheery, you turn the ‘family’ on now. Go ahead. …show more content…
He’s intrigued and goes to touch it but jumps back when it growls at him. He sees Beatty a little after and tells him “I was just figuring, what does the Hound think about there nights? Is it coming alive on us, really? It makes me cold.” Beatty says that it doesn't think anything at all unless they give it something to think about and Montag tells him that that is sad. The Hound’s job is to find any threat to their society. Montag and Beatty don’t share the same opinion which is why the Hound shows aggression toward Montag. It can tell that he’s reading books which is something that’s heavily looked down upon. After his encounter, Montag feels the need to share the experience with the Hound with somebody, and that somebody just so happens to be Beatty. When he does share this, it’s clear to see that Beatty already knows that something is up. Even with a world that’s heavily influenced by technology, there’s still a way to make a connection between people. Some people will go to concerts together. Others will go out to dinner. Some just go to the park or stay at home and chat. Technology isn’t necessary when wanting to connect with someone. With technology like phones, tablets, and computers, many of my friends only have conversations with me over text. At lunch, I’m able to talk to my friends about almost anything. Being there with them and being able to connect is an …show more content…
He thinks about there an old joke about the wife who talked so much on the telephone that her desperate husband ran out to the nearest store and telephoned her to ask what was for dinner. Well, why didn’t he buy himself an audio-Seashell broadcasting station and talk to his wife late at night…” Montag lays in bed and realizes that he doesn’t have late-night talks with his wife, or talks with her at night at all. She always has Seashells in listening to someone else ramble about nonsense. He then wonders why he hasn’t gone to get some Seashells of his own so he and his wife can have a conversation. With a person whether it be family, a significant other, or just a random person, if you are within each other’s presence, you shouldn’t need a device to speak with them. Montag and Mildred are married and don’t have meaningful conversations with each other throughout the day and the night. Montag is beginning to feel like he needs to get Seashells to talk to his wife. Be believes that’s the only way she’ll listen to him. When communication is lacking in a relationship, it can lead to serious problems, especially in a marriage. Marriage is considered to be a lifelong commitment. You’re expected to work everything out and stay happily in love for the rest of your lives but that won’t happen if you don’t communicate. Lack of
Reacted toward me” (26-27). Montag means that it would easy for someone to change the hound’s codes in order to make him attack someone. This shows that whoever has access to the hound can easily set it to kill whomever they want. Many people didn’t realize how much control the government had over their lives. They decided who lives and who dies, they also decided what the people get to know about their current events.
Rather than supporting her husband’s wishes and turning the television off, her immediate response is to defend the technology, which she does by referring to it as her “family.” Mildred’s tone when responding to Montag shows that she is not concerned with what he could be experiencing, and instead prioritizes her technology over her husband. Being Mildred’s husband, Montag is a part of her family. However, when Mildred refers to the parlor as her family she is acting as though they are more important than Montag. Following their interaction, that night while Mildred is laying in bed Montag begins to observe her, “Late in the night he looked over at Mildred.
Mildred is an average member of society who is oblivious to the absurd reality she lives in. She also doesn’t understand Montag’s growing fascination with books. As Montag begins to realize that he is not content with his life, he admits to his loneliness and thinks, “He was not happy. He said the words to himself. He recognized this as the true state of affairs.
This leads Montag to question his life and start to escape distraction and be conformed to society. The conflict in the novel is Man vs Society as well as Man vs Self, as Montag has to learn and break free from his old self. In Fahrenheit 451, a dystopian
In the novel Fahrenheit 451, advanced technology, unless used with care can be destructive to a productive society. The novel calls upon this theme many times as the story and characters progress and change. The story is set years in the future, in a dystopian civilization. Such a vile society sensors the people that live there, enforcing ignorance upon them. The main character, Guy Montag, fights to bring back knowledge and books to the society with the help of a retired professor Faber, who remembers the days of when knowledge was about.
Fahrenheit 451 presents a society where technology, including media has created a virtual world that disconnects them from reality, they live in. Montag’s boss chief Beatty states that without books everyone is happy, but it seems to show how after books everyone becomes upset and turns to any resource that would supply happiness. This was technology, where it created an environment where society did not have to think. Over time thinking about anything was uncommon and society was submerged in this false reality. Mildred the wife of Montag was the average technology addicted human, after spending all day watching her three TVs on the parlor walls.
At the beginning of the book, Montag returns home from work to find an overdosed Mildred. The next morning he confronts her: “You took all the pills in your bottle last night.” (Bradbury 19) She attempts to argue feigning innocence, distancing herself from a concerned Montag. When Montag confesses to his hidden books collection, Mildred chooses her “family” rather than help Montag and read a book.
It responds aggressively to him, since it is a machine only meant for attacking and wounding. Later, after Montag’s confrontation with Beatty, he is chased by the hound through the city. The hound moves around “silent as a drift of death itself,” (Bradbury, 128). It chases him without emotion, it’s only goal to get it’s target. The hound is an example of technology getting out of hand and affecting humanity in an extremely negative way.
At the end of the novel, Montag is not in the best place in his life. He was talking to Faber and he said, “this is happening to me” (108).
The quote "'I wouldn't want to be its next victim'" (25) shows how the Mechanical Hound stops Montag from having his own opinion, so he has to stay in line. This is similar to how people today are scared of being tracked, so they won't express their opinions. Another quote "The Hound did not touch the world. It carried its silence with it" (131) shows how the Hound was able to locate and stalk anyone, so people couldn't act out of the government's rules. This is similar to how people today can't say something controversial, or else they can be tracked by things like GPS trackers.
Montag is having a rant about the problems technology has caused in his mental life. "Nobody listens any more. I can't talk to the walls because they're yelling at me. I can't talk to my wife; she listens to the walls. I just want someone to hear what I have to say.
Without sincere communication and bonding, people quickly grow hopeless, confused, and even mentally insane. Although Mildred and Montag speak to each other, their talks are dry, short, and shallow. An aimless conversation does not serve a purpose in connecting human beings. Instead, it completes the opposite, wasting time. People must adequately connect with others in their relationships to maintain healthy interconnection and show dedication.
The book Fahrenheit 451 takes place in a futuristic society that burns books and worships technology. Bradbury shows the reader how advanced technology could affect how people interact with each other. Such as through Mildred who is constantly distracted by her technology. Bradbury warns that too much technology usage could lead our society to become like the society in Fahrenheit 451. Due to Mildreds obsession with her seashell headphones her relationship with Montag weakens.
Montag is not able to speak with Mildred. He wonders how he can even communicate with her, “‘Wasn’t there an old joke about the wife who talked so much on the telephone that her desperate husband ran out to the nearest store and telephoned her to ask her what was for dinner? Well, then, why didn’t he buy himself an audio-Seashell broadcasting station and talk to his wife late at night... But what would he whisper, what would he yell? What could he say?’”
After the alarm was called in on Montag’s house, Montag didn’t know how to react. He was upset that Mildred, his wife, betrayed him and didn’t talk to him. Captain Beatty saw the radio in Montag’s ear and then fall